Max Tegmark L'universo Matematico

VOICES is a brand new project from acclaimed composer, pianist, producer, and collaborator, Max Richter. VOICES is comprised of 56 minutes (10 tracks) of material featuring orchestra, choir, solo soprano, solo violin, solo piano and electronics. The narrated text has been adapted from the UN Declaration and is read by acclaimed US actor Kiki Layne (If Beale Street Could Talk). Also featuring the 1949 Recording of the preamble to the declaration by Eleanor Roosevelt.

In 1939, Steiner was borrowed from Warner Bros. by Selznick to compose the score for his next film, Gone with the Wind (1939), which became one of Steiner's most notable successes. Steiner was the only composer Selznick would consider for scoring the film, states Thomas. Despite 1939 being Steiner’s peak year for the number of scores he composed—twelve films in all—he was given only three months to do it. When the film was released, it was the longest film score ever composed, at nearly three hours. The composition consisted of 16 main themes and almost 300 musical segments. To meet the deadline, Steiner sometimes worked for 20-hours straight, taking Benzedrine pills to stay awake.

The idea probably looked good on paper. Why not combine Buddy Rich's Quintet of 1959 (which consisted of altoist Phil Woods, trombonist Willie Dennis, pianist John Bunch and bassist Phil Leshin) with Max Roach's band of the time (consisting of trumpeter Tommy Turrentine, tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, trombonist Julian Priester and bassist Bobby Boswell)? This CD reissues all of the music (including four "new" alternate takes) but the excess of drum solos and the relative brevity of space given to the horns results in a great deal of sameness from track to track.

Gliding ambient serenity with hypnotic hand drumming. Max Corbacho's first CD drifts over the listener like soft sand and silk, weightless wafts and gossamer veils of synthetic tone rising and falling in delicate harmony. The tone is light and dreamy, floatational and airy - atmospheric rather than oceanic, skybound rather than subterranean. The percussive content is confined to the first four pieces - here gentle loops comprised of organic beats with an ethnic flavour roll round evenly, trance-inducing, repeating until a part of the fabric of the environment. As the album progresses the introspective nature of the music increases - the beautiful Erosion lulling and spacious leading into the final three beatless tracks. The shadows pull in somewhat toward the end, Vestiges opening with a twilight moodiness that seems to open into a clear night - the listener a solitary presence in a vast panorama.

Who today has heard of Max d'Ollone? He studied with Massenet, was a contemporary of Richard Strauss, composed operas and cultivated a sensuous and deeply Romantic approach to vocal music. The Prix de Rome competition gave him the opportunity to compose several impressive cantatas and pieces for chorus and orchestra, characterised by a combination of grandeur and refinement.